By Professor Abdoulaye Saine, Oxford OH.

Mr. Editor: Many thanks for publishing Mr. Sam Sarr's letter in response to former Captain Sabally's article. I could not agree more with Sam's position. I was also happy that Sam revealed Sabally's alleged role in the brutal deaths of Barrow and Faal. I was shocked by the way Fall was allegedly killed by the late Cpt. Sadibou Hydara as well. While I do not know Sabally, I have heard about his alleged use of force and violence against innocent Gambians while he was in power as vice-Chairman. Therefore, to come to this forum and present himself as a born-again Muslim is troubling. The bigger question for me, however, is where did we go wrong as a society, a nation and a people? How did we as a people, and a culture produce the likes of Sabally, Haidara, Jammeh, Sonko to name a few, who allegedly engaged in torturing and killing Gambians? I am deeply traumatized each time I read about the torture, killing and brutality by some "men in uniform." And each time, I cry for the immediate victims, their relatives and The Gambia. I simply can not comprehend how Gambians can inflict such brutality against their fellow brothers and sisters. Clearly, this is not the same country and culture I was born into some fifty and more years ago, where respect, kindness, and consideration for others was the general rule. Every Gambian or non-Gambian who dies or is brutalized diminishes us all as individuals, a people and a country and with it human life. The fact is that almost everything in Gambia today, including the economy, its politics even our language or the manner in which we speak to each other has turned violent, as well as the way(s) we value each other and human life. As I ponder the state of terror in this once peacful cradle of my childhood and youth, I often wonder how and where we went wrong as a people. Gambian society is today unraveling at the seams- fueled by greed, ethnocentric adualtion and wanton disregard for human life. It seems in the quest for power and wealth some of us have cast aside the humanistic traditions and values that glue(d) us a people or as a country. Once cherished and shared values as truth-telling, trust, tolerance, regard and respect for each other and fear in God have all but left us. Today, The Gambia is engulfed in and torn apart by hate, vindictiveness, fear and brutality of unprecidented proportions. I wonder if these are the by-product(s) of a society previously constructed as "peaceful" and "prosperous"? Were these once cherished values that we putatively share(d) a facade that concealed unsavory tendencies in our once "peacful" social order in which the Jola as a group occupied the lower rungs of society? Could the latter explain Jammeh's politics, and perhaps his desire to uplift his historically marginalized co-ethnics? Is there lingering, and deep-seated resentment against "other" ethnic groups and a once dominant politico-economic class? Do these fuel Jammeh's policies? Is the killing, and brutality under his watch a way to redemm pride in self and co-ethnics? More significantly, what fears drive Jammeh? We must begin to find answers to these questions, and perhaps many more, if we are to understand ourselves, Jammeh and The Gambia's socio-economic makeup. This is imperative if we are to make peaceful democratic change possible. Meanwhile, I will continue to cry for the dead and victims of Jammeh's rule, while simultaneously protesting against illegal arrest, detention, torture beating and alleged killing of Gambians. I do this, in part, to preserve my sanity and humanity and to remind myself that a Gambia at peace with itself and its neighbors is possible.